Pancetta and Parmesan Pasta Sauce

Apparently today is the day for posting pasta recipes. Particularly, pasta recipes from David so I thought I would post this miscellaneous pasta recipe I got of him some time ago.

Ingredients:

1. 125 grams cubed pancetta;
2. 150 grams best tomatoes available chopped (or you can just use canned);
3. 1 large diced onion;
4. 3 chopped garlic cloves;
5. 225 grams grated parmesan cheese;
6. Bunch basil;
7. Salt & pepper to taste;
8. Pinch sugar;
9. Penne pasta cooked al dente (works with almost all pasta types actually);

Saute garlic and onions until soft, add tomatoes, basil, sugar and salt and pepper. Slightly reduce tomato sauce before putting it through a food mill to get rid of the seeds and skin.

In another frying pan sauté the pancetta till crisp. Add a tablespoon white wine or vinegar and boil off before adding the tomato sauce. Simmer for about 10 min.

Add the parmesan. This will look like too much parmesan but that is the whole point.

Add the penne to the pan, stir and serve immediately.

Amatriciana Sauce

David bummed this Al’Amatriciana sauce, from the Agatha and Romeo restaurant near Roma Termini five years ago. Very healthy, diet food really.

Ingredients (for 4 people):

1. 300 grams pasta (rigatoni works nicely with this);
2. 75 – 150 grams chopped lardon (quantity depends on preference);
3. 2 chopped cloves garlic;
4. 1 can of Italian tomatoes (usually 150 grams) either whole or crushed
5. 125 ml white wine;
6. 125 grams parmesan;
7. salt, black pepper to taste;
8. 30 grams butter.

Fry up lardons and chopped garlic in olive oil until both are starting to get golden. Add wine and let alcohol burn off while scraping bottom of the pan which has been caramelized with lardon.

Add tomatoes and let simmer away about 20 minutes -- break up tomatoes if they are whole -- season with salt and pepper at this stage. Add parmesan to sauce -- stir until parmesan melts into sauce.

Add butter to sauce -- the sauce will turn colours from a deep red to orangey and should be creamy and oily. About 5 minutes before sauce is ready put pasta into boiling water -- make sure you undercook pasta by about a minute.

Drain pasta, reserve 1-2 tblsp of pasta cooking water. Put pasta in pan with the sauce; add the pasta water to loosen everything up. Mix around for about a minute, season further with salt and pepper to taste.

Courgette & Sage Pasta

This is an old favourite that usually gets made when I’ve left too many courgettes too long in my fridge creating a need to use them up quickly. Very good though:

Ingredients (for two):

1. 250 grams courgette sliced thinly;
2. 125 grams Mozzarella cut up into dices (can also be replaced by ricotta particularly the salty type, would then be a typical Puglian dish and best served with Orecchiette pasta);
3. 75 grams grated parmesan cheese;
4. 150 ml tinned Italian tomatoes;
5. 1 medium sized onion sliced;
6. 2 chopped garlic cloves;
7. 2 tablespoons fresh basil;
8. 1 tablespoon fresh sage;
9. Olive oil;
10. Salt & Pepper to taste;
11. 150 grams spaghetti.

In a deep pan at medium heat sweet the onion and garlic in olive oil until tender. Add the courgette and fry until it starts to go transparent. Add the tomato, herbs and salt and pepper to taste. If the tomatoes are whole mash them up. Let simmer until tomato sauce starts to thicken add the mozzarella and ¾ of the parmesan.

Stir until cheese is melted then poor over the al dente pasta you have already prepared and freshened up with a little bit of olive oil. Sprinkle the remaining parmesan over the pasta and serve immediately.

Ragu (Bolognese Sauce)

Reading this food blog inspired me to make ragu following my own recipe. I started originally with a recipe from Anna Del Conte’s book Gastronomy of Italy. Being 85 years old she does not have a website as far as I can tell but Amazon will happily sell anyone who’s interested a copy. This was for a long time my favorite Italian cookbook it is however very traditional and once you have mastered the basics not very inspiring. The ragu recipe however, is like all the traditional recipes in her book, absolutely fabulous.

I’m afraid that as with much of my cooking Mrs. Del Conte would not necessarily endorse the recipe as it has evolved in my hands. In any case the basic principle here, as with any ragu, is reduction of liquids and concentration of taste. I use veal as the bulk of the meat as it is very light but I find that its taste is not strong enough so I add about 50% beef mince to the veal. If veal is not available this recipe works just as well with only beef but obviously it will be a bit different and heavier.

Ingredients:

(When I make ragu I make enough to freeze at least three portions use later. If you used this recipe in one go this would be enough for 10 servings as Primi)

1. 500 grams veal mince (try to get fairly rough mince as you do not want the meat to fall apart in the cooking);
2. 250 grams beef mince (best quality in this case is not lean meat but something that has at least 15% fat content);
3. 100 grams chicken liver, minced really fine. You can do this with a knife;
4. 100 – 150 grams pork belly with the skin removed and cut up fine. If you can’t get pork belly use streaky bacon. Although the pork belly’s primary function is as provider of fat (and taste) I do not like to mince it like the other meats rather I cut it up as fine as I can with a sharp knife. This yields a little bit of texture in the sauce that is not at all traditional but I find very satisfying;
5. 1 large red onion cut fine;
6. 4 roughly cut garlic cloves;
7. 200 ml red vine;
8. 1 litre good quality chicken stock;
9. 150 grams tomato paste;
10. 1 tablespoon strong soy sauce;
11. Two large carrots pealed and cut in half;
12. A large celery stick cut in three (the idea is to discard both the carrot and the celery at the end);
13. A bunch each of roughly chopped Basil and Parsley;
14. Rind of Parmesan cheese. Letting the rind of Parmesan cheese simmer with the ragu yields a very nice creamy consistency in the sauce. I keep all the rinds from the parmesan I use in my freezer so that I can use it in my ragu. As I do not make ragu very often I usually have about three sizeable rinds that I let simmer for the whole coking time before discarding them at the end. If you do not have parmesan rinds you will need to use either full cream milk or cream to thicken the sauce at the very last moment;
15. Salt and pepper to taste.

Fry the pork in a very hot heavy bottomed stewing pan until a bit crisp, lower heat and add the onion and garlic and sweat it a bit. When the onion in soft add the chicken liver and fry until done (it will brown). Raise the heat and add the veal and beef mince and brown the meat.

Add red vine and boil off most of the alcohol. Meanwhile dissolve the tomato past in the stock and add to the pan along with the soy sauce and 80% of the herbs. Add the vegetables and Parmesan rind and season to taste. Bring to boil then lower the heat to a simmer and let the sauce simmer covered for about 3 – 3 ½ hours. At the end you should have a meat sauce that is not liquid but leaves “legs” on a metal spoon if you stir the sauce. If you reduce the sauce too much keep back some of the pasta boiling liquid to add to the sauce at the last moment.

Check regularly if the sauce has the desired taste and try to adjust the seasoning as you go along. You do not want to be adding large quantities of salt or pepper at the very end as that somewhat negates the effort in simmering the sauce for 3 hours.

If you are using milk or cream add it at least 10 minutes before the end to allow it to reduce. Serve with either penne or spaghetti, with a generous shaving of parmesan and a sprinkling of the remaining herbs.

Fettuccine with mushrooms emulsified butter & lemon sauce

Ingredients

1. 150 grams of fettuccine
2. 50 grams shiitake thinly sliced
3. 50 grams field mushrooms thinly sliced
4. 50 grams ( or any other type of mushroom you happen to have including dried mushrooms in which case keep some of the liquid from reconstituting the dried mushrooms and add a little to the pasta sauce)
5. 100g unsalted butter
6. 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
7. 2 tbsp of roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
8. 2 tbsp of thyme
9. 1 tiny pinch of dried chilli
10. half a lemon

In half of the butter cook all the mushrooms and garlic until ready or about 10 minutes. When two minutes remain the parsley, thyme, chilli, the juice of the lemon, some of the dried mushroom liquid and the rest of the butter. Whisk the butter into the sauce so that it emulsifies, season with salt and pepper.

As you where cooking the mushrooms you should have been cooking the pasta in salted boiling water. Take the pasta out of the water and dry it when it is still quite firm then toss it in the mushroom sauce. Some parmesan on top and serve.

Dinner Menu 24 February 2007

• Caviar Versailles
• Conchiglioni con Cavalo Nero, Spec e funghi Galletti
• Roasted Fennel
• Saltimbocca a la Romana
• Cheese
• Chocolate brownies

Caviar Versailles is a brilliant method of getting you the three most important food groups namely, carbohydrates, cream and Caviar (Beluga naturally). You make potato mash with mealy potatoes, double cream and white pepper (white is important as black is too strong and looks odd) until you have a smooth but lumpy mash. You then load the mash into a whiskey tumbler sized glass upto half way, cover with a layer of crème frais and cover that with as much caviar as you can afford. If you are Roman Abromovitch stop at the top of the tumbler. This is apparently how caviar was served at Napoleon’s coronation at Versailles. I have no idea where I originally got the recipe but it is one of the best methods of serving caviar I’ve ever come across.

Served with: Reykja Vodka

The Conchiglioni (literally pasta shells) are loosely based on a River Café recipe principally how to prepare the cream sauce. In any case you remove the central stem from the Cavalo Nero, tear the blades into two to three pieces and blanch in gently simmering water. Heat about 300 ml double cream (or single or even yogurt) with loads of garlic (I used five cloves for a seven person recipe) and keep it simmering until the garlic is cooked, pulverize in a blender. Reconstitute the mushrooms as per below. Cut the speck into relatively thick sticks and fry at medium heat with a bit of olive oil until caramelized on all sides. Add the mushrooms and Cavalo Nero and turn until the Cavalo looses its water and sort of wilts. Poor over the cream and garlic sauce, season to taste and poor over the Conchiglioni.

To prepare the Conchiglioni the most important thing you can do is, as I’ve discovered, to completely ignore the bloody instructions on the pack. Apparently, pasta shells due to their size and thickness take a long time to cook but not the 25 minutes that the F***er who wrote the instructions for Waitrose thinks. This I unfortunately did not discover until I had six people sitting at my dinner table so rather than make them wait they had soggy pasta. As far as I can tell 15 min in boiling salted water is just fine.

Roasted Fennel as per 4 February 2007.

Saltimbocca as per the ’06 Christmas menu except I served it with zucchini. I cut the zucchini into a two centimeter cubes and fried them with butter, truffle olive oil, salvia, salt and pepper. I left the zucchini to simmer in the oil and butter until cooked through but still al dente. This turned out to be an excellent vegetable to have with the Saltimbocca.

Served with: Chataux Montrose 2001

Update: David says we got the Caviar recipe from Saveur Mag.

Curly Kale Penne Puglian Style

This does the trick whenever you have an excess of winter greens you don't know what to do with. In this case, a delivery of two lbs of curly kale had me thinking, and voila le resultat (don't be bashful on the pepperoncini and probably better without pecorino!).

Ingreditents:

1. Penne or cavatelli
2. 1-2 llbs of curly kale
3. 8-12 anchovies depending on amount of kale
4. handful of capers
5. 6-7 cloves of garlic sliced
6. crushed Italian dried pepperoncini
7. pecorino (optional)

Preparation:

1. Cut stems out of kale and boil in salted water til slightly undercooked
2. Saute garlic and pepperoncini in a few tblsp of olive oil in a large frying pan
3. Add capers and allow to saute til they brown a bit
4. Add anchovies and stir til they melt
5. After draining and patting dry the kale, put into frying pan with other ingredients. If there's a bit of water retained from kale, keep stirring/frying til water evaporates. Then add a little more oil and continue cooking until kale shrinks and develops a concentrated look/taste.
6. Slightly under cook the pasta in salted boiling water before adding to the pan with other ingredients. Include 2-3 tbls of pasta water so that pasta and heat/stir for another minute until pasta water has evaporated.
7. Serve on plates with some additional, fresh olive oil and a bit of pecorino if you like.

(Courtesy: David Richter)

Ravioli Fiorentina

This is a lovely, sweet-salty, festive ravioli that should get a collective "hmmmm" around the table when served. My wife and I first tried it in an Osteria off the beaten path in Florence (never easy, but possible).

Ingredients:

1. "00" Flour
2. Italian organic eggs
3. Ricotta
4. Spinach
5. Nutmeg
6. French Butter
7. Vegetable Broth
8. Sultanas
9. Cinnamon Sticks
10. Maldon Sea Salt, Fresh-Ground Pepper
11. Parmesan

Preparation:

1. Make pasta according to how much you need using the flour and egg yolks; wrap in cling film and let set at room temperature til needed (not more than 2-3 hours)
2. Make ravioli filling by combining 3 cups of steamed spinach (which has been squeezed dry) and 2.5 cups of ricotta. Grate generous amount of nutmeg, 1 egg yolk, salt and pepper, then mix well. Set aside in fridge.
3. Fill ravioli and place on a polenta-covered non-stick tray
4. Melt a pack of butter in a large saute pan (the largest you can find); add raisins then the broth until you have a smooth, thick sauce
5. Boil ravioli; sample for doneness. Drain ravioli, retaining some of the pasta water, then add to saute pan with butter in it. Continue to cook for about a minute making sure that raviolis are submerged in the butter.
6. Serve ravioli in saute pan, after having grated parmesan, cinnamon, salt and pepper on top

(Courtesy of David Richter)